A patient-specific model to evaluate cardiac function from a beating heart is
needed. Most current cardiac models were constructed using post mortem
measurements of animal hearts. To help understand human cardiac mechanics
and disease development, a model constructed based on real patient data is
important. In this study, we have employed medical imaging techniques to
analyze myocardial wall stress. We developed a methodology to determine
myocardial material properties using measurements from magnetic resonance
images. The finite element method was used to combine this information and
perform wall stress calculations. This process was applied to two healthy human
subjects to compute myocardial wall stress. We found general agreement in
myocardial wall stress between subjects, with results showing higher stress at the
inner wall of ventricles. The wall stress distributions in the left ventricle differed
between the two subjects; one had a large area of high wall stress, the other had
discontinuous bands of higher wall stress.
Keywords: cardiac mechanics, myocardial wall stress, patient-specific
modelling, myocardial material properties, and finite element analysis.
1 Introduction
To gain insight into ventricular dysfunction a quantitative method to describe
myocardial mechanics in a beating heart has been intensively sought. Research